Plate-printing press



May'19, 1925. 1,538,323

V c. JJGUTBERLET PLATE PRINTING Passs Filed Jan. 31. 1923 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR C'ficules J." Qufberlt ATTORNEY May 19, 1925. 1,538,323

c. J. GUTBERLET PLATE Hummer PRESS Filed Jan. 31. 1923 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 2.

INVENTOR Cfiaflad. Gut berlef k MW 56W H15 ATTORNEY *May 19, 1925.

v c. J. GUTBERLET PLATE PRINTING PRESS Filed Jan. 31. 1923 sheets-sheet 5 mm mm 11 1W1--- l vm mm aw mm Ev w 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 C. J. GUTBERLET PLATE PRINTING PRESS Filed Jan. 1. 1923 May 19, 1925.

Uhafles J. GuTberleT vita MW ATTORNEY Patented May 19, 1925.

CHARLES .TPGUTBEELET, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

PLATE-PRINTING PRESS.

Application filed January 31, 1923. Serial No. 616,087.

To aZZ 2072072 z't may concern;

Be it known that 1, CHARLES J. GUTBER- LET, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city. and county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania,; have invent-ed a new and useful Improvement in Plate-Printing Presses, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the drawings annexed.

Plate printing presses, when fed by hand require two skilled operators, whose work .is quite dangerous. Feeding is often interrupted and often sheets are spoiled be cause the operator who 'is removing the printed sheets cannot remove them quickly enough, for their removal requires a peculiar turn of the hand, a quickness of perception and nice turning and even very skillful and experienced joperators fail many times in the course of the day in it. The press, not capable of highspeed under any circumstances, is almost always also delayed by being slowed down to the speed at which the remover is able to work, and many sheets are spoiled and useless impressions made.

My device is intended to perform automatically the removal of the printed sheet or sheets (for it can remove more than one print-ed article simultaneously) and the disposal of them in rows where they can dry sufficiently to permit that they should be stacked.

Fig. 1 is a plan yiew of my device on a small 'cale. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the portion of the device looked at from the dircctionof the arrows, 2, 2, on Fig. 1, part of the table frame being omitted to show the operating mechanisms. Fig. 3 is I a side elevation of the device between the lines -33 and 3-3, looked at from .the :dir-ections of the arrows at the ends ,of'tliese lines. Fig. i is a side elevation of the device between the lines ii-A: and 4-4, on Fig. 1, looked at from the direction of the arrows at the end of these lines. Fig. 5 is an end view of the, carrier mechanism. The portions of the press to which the parts of themechanism are attached are shown as briefly as possible by a few outlines. Figs. 2 to 5 are on a much larger scale than Fig. 1, and'show more detail.

The machine embraces a lift and carry device, positioned and moving to pick up the sheets as they are printed and deposit with, after the printing, and will carry it a to the fly and deposit it thereon, the fly at that time being in position to receive it, and forthwith turning over to deposit it, face upward, upon the bed, which will be moved forward between the deposit of each successive sheet adist-ance sufiicient to keep each sheet from lying on top of the printed portion ofthe sheet deposited before it on the bed.

The press is of any usual form. 7 Its plunger, 1, carries a track 9 which rises and falls with it, a carriage, which bears the lifters travels on this track and lies immediately above the sheet. when the plunger descends. The lifters, 10, 10, are pneumatic. They consist in practice of the vertical suction cylinders having the cups 65, 6'5. These cylinders are adjustable toward and away from each other-and can be clamped in a fixed position by' -the jaw, t. The support, 11,, of the carriage carrying the lifters, 10, 1-0, extends beyond the track. 9, when it is in position to deposit the sheet upon the fly, so that the paper on the slat of the fly will not engage with it when the fly turns over. In practice the carriage has a cross-head, 3 to one side of and slightly back of the support, 11.

A suction device such as anair pump, 75, draws the air through pipes as 76, and flexible tubes, 78, which connectpneumatically with the cylinders, 10, 10. e

The cups, 65, 6-5, are pressed down by the downward movement of plunger on the sheets and before they are lifted the suction begins. The pump rod is operated by attachment tosome revolving or rocking shaft that turns in unison with the reciprocationof the plunger, 1. A link, 77,'can connect the carriage with a like or the same shaft as that to which the pump rod is connected. This carriages motion is timed .to have it substantially stationary over the sheet when the plunger brings the paper against the engraved plate, and to begin the movement of translation when the plunger has risen slightly and forthwith to carry the paper over the fly and then release the suction, thus letting the sheet fall upon the fly. At this point the fly and the carrier are in the relative positions shown in the dotted line on Fig. 4. The carriage is then returned to its position above the table, 1Y8, in front of the plunger, 1, so that it will descend upon the sheet on the table, 1. 8, as the plunger descends to print or emboss.

The fly is provided with mechanism for turning it through a half revolution so that the sheet delivered to it by the lifters, 10, 10, with the printed face downwards, will be laid with this printed face upwards upon a movable bed. As the ink deposited on the sheet in plate printing is very thick and very heavily deposited it is important that the sheet, which has the printed face clownwards in the press will be laid upon the bed with the printed face upward. Also, the sheets must be stacked so that the printed portions are not overlaid by the sheets follo ing them; hence the need for a moving bed that will move each sheet suiiiciently to bring the printed part clear of the following sheet when the latter is deposited upon it by the fly. A step by step mecha nism is most suitable for this purpose because the sheets are deposited more evenly when the bed is at rest. It moves the bed forward after a sheet has been deposited on the bed and keeps the bed at rest whenever a sheet is being deposited. I operate the turning of the fly, 15, in a step by step forward movement of the bed in practice as follows :A rock shaft, 47, is driven from a rotating shaft, 79, of the press, by the arms, 87 and 52 and the link, 46. This shaft carries the cam, 35, that engages with the idler pulley, 49, on the crosshead, 56 that moves in the guide, 30. This cam head, 56, has a rack, 89, that meshes with the gear, on the fly shaft, 4% that is carried with the stamlards, 29, 29. This shaft, 47, also carries the gear pinion, 58 meshing with the gear pinion, 59, that, by means of the arms, 39 and 40, link, 45, pawl, 62, ratchet wheel, 61, sprocket wheel, 86, and 69, and sprocket chain, 53, drives a roller, 50, that moves the bed, 54. This bed, 54, passes over the rollers, 50, 50, and in practice is advantageously formed of a flexible fabric. The standards, 43, 43, carry tiiese rollers. The arm, 39, and link 45, have set screw, 54 by which the throw and angular motion of the rollers is regulated. As the length of the line in plate printing is generally longer than the depth of the printed matter, it is somewhat more convenient to have the bed arranged to travel in a direction at rigl'it angles to the length of the line, and the mechanism is so shown.

I claim: I

1. In a conveyor for plate printing presses, the combination with a suction conveyor, travelling from a position in front of the plunger of the press, to a point removed therefrom and pressed upon the printed sheet when in front of the plunger, a suction mechanism rarefying the air in the suction conveyor while pressed upon the sheet and while travelling away from the plunger and then relieving the suction so produced, a fly turning between a position beneath the travelling carriage when the latter is away from the plunger and a position over the bed, said fly receiving the sheet from the carriage and turning it over and placing it on the bed, a moving bed moving between each delivery of the sheet upon it by the fly, and a mechanism for giving this motion to the bed.

2. The device as defined in claim 1, with this additional element: The said last named mechanism being a step by step mechanism timed'to stop the bed while the sheet is being deposited upon the same by the fly and to move it forward a fixed distance between the deposit of each sheet.

8. The device as described in claim 1, with this additional element: said last named mechanism being a step by step mechanism, timed to stop the bed while the sheet is being deposited upon the same by the fly, and to move it forward a fixed distance between the deposit of each sheet, the said step by step mechanism being adjustable to permit a varying amount of the forward movement of the bed.

4. The device as defined in claim 1, with the following: the suction device being adjustable.

5. The device as defined in claim 1, with the following: the direction of the travel of the carriage bearing the suction devices be ing at right angles to the direction of the movement of the bed.

6. The device as defined in claim 1, with the following addition: the said suction device rising and descending with the plunger of the press.

7. The device as defined in claim 1, with the following: the fly being timed so that it will be stationary beneath the suction device as the sheet is delivered to it and will carry and deliver the sheet to the bed while the latter is stationary. V

8. In a conveyor for plate printing presses the combination with the plunger of the press of a lifting and carrying device having a track rising and falling with the plunger, a carriage rising and falling with said track and travelling along the same, and provided with pneumatic lifters for lifting the printed sheets, and mechanism timed with the movement of said plunger, bringing the carriage above the sheet being printed as the plunger descends upon it and moving it along said trackaway from the plunger when the latter rises, and a suction device raretying the air in the pneumatic lifter while the carriage is rising and travelling away from the plunger. r

'9. In a conveyor for plate printing presses, the combination with the plunger of the press of a lifting and carrying device having a track carried by said plunger and moving with the same, a carriage secured in said track and travelling along the same, litters for the printed sheet attached to said carriage and projecting sufficiently down-' ward below it to contact with the printed sheet when the plunger is in its low position, and the carriage is positioned adjacent to the plunger, mechanism for moving the carriage along the track when the plunger rises and means disengaging the sheet from the lifters when the carriage has reached the eX- tent of its travel away from the plunger.

7 10. The device as defined in claim 9 with the following additional element: and a suction device for operating the lifters.

CHAS. J. GUTBERLE 

